Last updated on August 1st, 2024 at 06:48 pm

For any organisation to run successfully, a number of factors play a crucial role. Companies are dependent on the competency of their employees to accomplish their goals. It is expected that problems will arise when employees from different backgrounds work together as a team towards a common goal. 

Human Resource (HR) professionals are responsible for designing job roles and creating a work system for the employees of an organisation to follow. They are also responsible for resolving any problems during the work lifecycle. These professionals use several methods for solving any issues that may arise. 

If you want to study human resources online, this guide will help you understand the concepts of job designing, working systems, and statistical analysis for problem-solving. 

What is Job Design?

Job design can be described as the process companies use to create a new job role or add new duties to any existing job. It can involve creating new positions or adjusting the tasks of a current position. This allows organisations to reach their goal easily with every employee performing a set task. 

The goal of HR managers is to design work duties specific to a professional. This allows the employee to maximise their performance and stay motivated and engaged. The main purpose of job designing is to integrate necessary duties and qualifications for performing a particular task to maximise performance and increase value. 

With effective job designing, HR managers can determine an employee’s ability to complete tasks and their pace of working. 

Goals of job design

Job designing is very crucial in every organisation. Here are its main goals:

Elements of job design 

There are several crucial elements of job design. They include:

Need for job design

Job design is needed in almost every organisation across the world. There are several ways in which it helps companies and managers. Some of them have been listed below:

Job design also has an impact on several administrative factors, such as:

Strategies for job design 

Here, we have listed some examples of job design strategies that can be used to increase efficiency and productivity. 

When a manager adds certain motivational factors to an already established job role, it can be defined as job enrichment. A leader or manager might offer employees additional feedback, or they might make natural work units. This is when the manager groups tasks to increase efficiency and task identity. 

Job rotation can be described as the process in which employees are moved between job roles. This kind of job design helps the employees boost their skills as well as learn from different experiences that they otherwise won’t have. This helps in increasing employee flexibility and also allows them to finish any additional duties. 

Job enlargement is when tasks are added to a single position, allowing employees to expand their skills and knowledge. This also helps in reducing monotony and will enable employees to take on any additional responsibilities. 

As the name suggests, this is when managers, instead of adding tasks, remove them. Even though this might seem contrary to job design, it helps narrow down a role to some specific task or a set of functions. This approach is used in companies generally when a position becomes unmanageable. 

This happens when employees get additional responsibilities with time. This might include the kind of tasks that they are responsible for, the scope of the tasks, and also checks if the new duties are increasing their interaction with other departments or employees. 

If you want to learn about the strategies in detail, a credible HR Analytics course will be ideal for you. 

Components of job design 

Several managers depend on a style of job design that emphasises five key job features when creating or recreating a job role. These characteristics can help enhance employee motivation and satisfaction. The five components are:

Steps involved in job design 

The steps listed below help HR managers design jobs effectively, thus optimising employee performance. This also helps increase employee engagement and avoid any boring or repetitive tasks. The process of job design is as follows:

Step 1: HR managers must decide the essential contents in the job description. They should avoid listing automated tasks that can be performed on the machine. 

Step 2: HR managers must consider the skills and knowledge needed to perform the job. 

Step 3: They will have to decide the length of the job — full-time or part-time hours. The working hours must be set precisely since it will cost the organisation. 

Step 4: They must confirm no overlapping duties with other jobs. 

You can choose to study human resources online to have a proper understanding of how you should apply the steps mentioned here. 

Work System Basics 

A work system can be defined as a system where people and machines perform activities and processes with the help of information and technology to produce products and services for customers. 

Work system framework 

The work system framework consists of nine main elements. This framework outlines parts of a static work system view. Here, the small details might change incrementally with time but without changing the overall structure, integrity, or identity. 

Work system framework

The elements of the work system framework are as follows: 

What are high-performance work systems?

Now that we have a basic understanding of work systems, let us understand what high-performance work systems are. 

It can be defined as a set of strategic HR management initiatives which help businesses decentralise the decision-making process for improving firm profitability and performance. Companies leveraging high-performance work systems are determined to develop a number of HR practices aiming to:

High-performance work systems (HPWS) stand in contrast to the more traditional organisational performance management practices focusing on:

High-performance work systems are a process of continuous improvement. To build a successful HPWS, companies will have to hire selectively and ensure that leaders are able to recognise the intrinsic values of their employees. 

A crucial step to becoming a high-performance organisation (HPO) is to undergo a mindset shift. In this shift, the company’s employees are seen as a competitive advantage instead of an expense. 

In HPWS, the intellectual capital of a company is the main advantage. Intellectual capital is the value of a company’s employees’ knowledge, skills, training, and proprietary information. 

To make this shift:

Since the decision-making authority is distributed, employers should trust their employees to work effectively and feel empowered to make the right choices. In return, the employees are expected to be highly confident, competent, accountable, and engaged.

What is the purpose of high-performance work systems?

The main idea behind HPWS is to create a substantial competitive advantage in the industry. This advantage comes with the intellectual capital of the company rather than any other new feature. Even though the new feature can be replicated by your competition in some time, it takes more work to replicate talent.  

It is a powerful approach for enhancing the engagement and morale of employees. To have an effective, high-performance work system, there must be an organisation-wide commitment to change, clear communication about expectations and goals, and a high degree of employee-employer trust. 

If you want to understand the workings of HPWS, a certification course in HR management will be ideal for you. It will help you understand the purpose and workings of HPWS. 

What is Statistical Analysis?

Statistical analysis can be defined as the process of collecting data and then applying statistical and other data analysis techniques to identify patterns, trends, and insights. Professionals find correlations between the variables in the raw data to find trends and patterns. 

It helps eliminate any unnecessary information and helps in effortlessly cataloguing essential data. This makes the tedious process of organising inputs much simpler. Using statistical data analysis for problem-solving has many benefits, which is why almost every organisation in the world uses it today. 

There are several types of statistical data analysis. Some of them have been briefly mentioned below:

A certification course in HR management can help you understand the implications of the different types of statistical data analysis. 

How is statistical analysis used for problem-solving? 

Statistical analysis is used in organisations to help employees achieve their goals and overcome any challenges. Here, we will discuss the steps involved in statistical data analysis for problem-solving. 

Step 1: Identify the problem 

The very first step is to identify and define the problem that needs to be solved. This helps in chalking out the objectives that you want to achieve. It is also necessary to identify the relevant variables to the problem and data sources that are needed or available. 

Step 2: Collect data

After you have identified the problem that you want to address, it is necessary to collect data that will help in testing the hypothesis. Appropriate tools and methods such as surveys, experiments, or interviews can be used for collecting valid and reliable data needed for the problem. 

Step 3: Analyse the data 

The data collected is then analysed using statistical techniques and software programs for summarising, visualising, and interpreting the data. It is necessary to choose the appropriate method based on the level and type of data, the research design, and the assumptions. 

Step 4: Interpret the results 

After analysis, you will have to interpret the results of the data analysis and draw conclusions according to the evidence. It would be best if you also calculated the reliability and validity of the results as well as considered the implications and limitations of the analysis. 

Step 5: Communicate the findings 

The findings of the data analysis and interpretation have to be conveyed to the target audience concisely and clearly. You must use appropriate media and formats for presenting the recommendations and findings. 

Step 6: Implementing the solutions 

Finally, after all the findings are in place, it is time to implement the data findings. You must evaluate and monitor the impact and outcomes of your solutions and make any needed adjustments. 

HR professionals can enrol in an Human Resource Management course online to learn to implement these steps correctly. 

Conclusion 

Problem-solving is a crucial part of human resource management. HR managers are always looking for new and improved ways to tackle problems that might arise in the organisation. It is essential to understand the challenge and work towards finding an effective solution for it. If you want to build your career as an HR professional, check out the Human Resource Management And Analytics CEC course by Imarticus. This certification course in HR management has been designed in collaboration with IIT Roorkee. The course will help build the skills and impart the requisite knowledge for you to face real-life HR challenges. Visit the website to take a step towards a flourishing HR career today!